Ballot Measures, Legislation & Rulemaking
Connecticut: On the day Senate Bill 386, which would allow municipalities to voluntarily adopt ranked choice voting in party caucuses and primaries and some municipal elections, cleared the Government Administration and Elections Committee, a group of municipal leaders wrote to Gov. Ned Lamont and legislative leaders urging its passage into law. The letter — addressed to Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, Speaker of the House Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, and House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford — emphasized that the proposal would not mandate RCV statewide, but instead empower cities and towns to adopt the system for their own municipal elections if they choose. “This is a practical, incremental reform that respects local control,” the municipal leaders write. “It gives communities the freedom to strengthen democratic participation in ways that best reflect their residents’ needs.” Gov. Ned Lamont said Connecticut works best when focused on practical solutions. “Allowing municipalities to adopt Ranked Choice Voting on an opt-in basis respects local control while giving communities a tool to increase participation and ensure majority support in local elections,” he said. “This is not about partisanship, it’s about empowering voters and modernizing our democracy in a thoughtful, constitutional way.” The GAE Committee passed the measure by a party-line, 18-11 vote and Republicans have spoken out against it.
Lawmakers held public hearings on several major election-related bills that seek to prevent “harassment” and “intimidation” at polling places and would implement no-excuse absentee voting throughout the state for the first time. SB 463 — would, among other things, ban federal agents from arresting or detaining people near a polling location and prevent those federal officials from standing outside election sites to check the voting eligibility. The bill also makes it a crime for someone to possess a weapon within 250 feet of election sites in certain circumstances and requires local election officials to notify the Connecticut Attorney General’s office if they receive a subpoena for ballots and other records. Leadership on the GAE committee is now seeking to implement those changes in a wide-ranging bill — HB 5001 — which deals with multiple aspects of election administration. If that bill passes this year, Connecticut would join 28 other states that already have no-excuse absentee voting. The GAE committee did take up a bill — SB 459 — that would ban anyone who is convicted of election crimes from circulating applications for absentee ballots for up to 12 years. That bill, which was requested by Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas for the second year in a row, is meant to prevent political operatives from repeatedly committing absentee ballot fraud, as has been alleged in Bridgeport.
Delaware: House Bill 317 was introduced March 17, aiming to tighten oversight of Delaware’s automatic voter registration system through audits and ongoing eligibility checks. Sponsored by Milford Rep. Shupe (R -District 36), the legislation would require the Department of Elections to work with the Division of Motor Vehicles and other state agencies to review voter registrations created through the automatic system since 2021. The proposal calls for a comprehensive audit to confirm that registered voters meet eligibility requirements, including citizenship, residency and age. In addition, the bill would mandate continuous verification for all future automatic voter registrations. If passed, state agencies involved in automatic voter registration would need to coordinate data-sharing and verification processes, with findings from the audit expected to be documented and made available through formal reports. The bill has been assigned to the House Elections & Government Affairs Committee.
Florida: The Legislature has approved a bill (HB 991) that will require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, similar to federal legislation being advocated for by President Trump and Republicans in Congress. The bill also will remove student IDs from being an acceptable form of identification at the polls. The GOP-controlled Florida House approved the measure 77-28. The vote came hours after the Senate approved the measure, mostly along party lines, 27-12. The bill says that the U.S. citizenship status of every Florida voter would need to be verified through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records before their voter registration is considered valid. Applicants would need to prove their citizenship by providing one of the following: A REAL ID-compliant driver’s license; A U.S. birth certificate; A current and valid U.S. passport; A Consular Report of Birth Abroad from the U.S. Department of State; A naturalization certificate, certificate of citizenship, certificate number, or an alien registration number issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; A current and valid photo identification issued by the federal government or from Florida that indicates U.S. citizenship; or An order from a federal court granting U.S. citizenship. The bill’s supporters note that it would not affect voters who have already had their citizenship verified when they received a Florida driver’s license compliant with REAL ID standards. The Senate added an amendment previously passed in the House to remove certain forms of identification from being acceptable. Most controversially, student IDs will no longer be work — nor will retirement center IDs, neighborhood association IDs, military IDs, or debit or credit cards. The bill also requires the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, starting in 2027, to include legal status on any new or renewed driver’s license or identification card. The Florida Supervisors of Elections did not take a position on the bill. Wendy Sartory Link, president of that organization, told the Phoenix, “We did provide some comments to it throughout the process, some of which were incorporated.”
Georgia: Republicans have unveiled a sweeping proposal aimed at overhauling Georgia’s election system ahead of the 2028 presidential election, dealing a blow to conservative activists who had hoped to implement hand-marked paper ballots ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Senate Bill 214, introduced by Sen. Max Burns (R-Sylvania), would begin the process of switching from ballots that are counted using QR codes to ones that voters can mark by hand. It would also give the State Election Board, rather than the secretary of state’s office, new authority over election audits and direct the state to begin the process of procuring a new election system in February. It passed a House committee March 17. Rep. Victor Anderson, a Cornelia Republican who is sponsoring the bill in the House, said lawmakers had hoped to be able to meet the July deadline for removing QR codes, but said logistical issues forced them to delay the plan. “Unfortunately, as we began to work through that process,” he said, “we very quickly and very abruptly began to realize that the practicality of that happening without causing a severe upset in our election system, it just wasn’t gonna happen. It wasn’t possible.” The 22-page measure also includes a provision from a bill introduced last year by Atlanta Democratic Rep. Saira Draper, which would allow parents of children two years old and younger to skip the line at polling places along with voters over the age of 75 and those with disabilities. Draper said she applauded the committee’s decision to incorporate feedback from election officials into the bill. But she criticized a portion of the bill that allows the State Election Board to launch a pilot program for auditing elections, arguing that the board “does not have the expertise or the resources required to conduct an audit.” The bill now goes to the gatekeeping House Rules Committee, which decides which bills go to the full chamber for a vote. This year’s legislative session is set to end April 2.
Idaho: A new bill that would allow prospective jurors to get out of jury duty by instead volunteering as an election poll worker is heading to Gov. Brad Little’s desk for final consideration. If passed into law, House Bill 560 would allow county clerks to submit a request to the jury commissioner and the court to offer potential jurors the opportunity to volunteer for election service as poll workers during the next county-led election in lieu of jury service. Sen. Phil Hart, a Republican from Kellogg who sponsored the bill, said passing the bill would help increase the number of local poll workers. The bill does not apply to federal juries or federal elections, Hart said. The Idaho Senate voted 35-0 to pass the bill without any debate on Monday afternoon. The Idaho House of Representatives previously voted 68-0 to pass the bill on Feb. 26. Once the bill reaches his desk, Little has five days (not counting Sunday) to sign it into law or veto it. If he does not sign or veto it within five days, the bill would become law without his signature.
On March 18, the House rejected a proposed budget increase to pay for the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office to produce an informational voters’ pamphlet, as required by law. Following a short debate, members of the Idaho House rejected House Bill 909 on a 27-43 vote. House Bill 909 is a fiscal year 2027 budget enhancement for the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. The bill included $350,000 in one-time funding to pay for the voter pamphlet and a $20,000 transfer to pay for overtime for the post-election audit team in the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office, according to the fiscal note attached to the bill.
Michigan: An effort at the Legislature aims to make sure local governments always have someone qualified to run an election. On March 17, the House Committee on Election Integrity heard testimony on House Bill 5717. It would let township boards hire a qualified, accredited election official from outside the township if the clerk’s seat is vacant or there’s no trained deputy to step in. Supporters say many rural clerks are quitting under heavy workloads, low pay and controversy over issues like solar farms and data centers. “In our rural communities where township positions are not full-time. They don’t pay full-time,” said Hillsdale County Clerk Abe Dane. “And then you add the stress of scrutiny on just elections in general, but then solar, battery, all these things that have been coming up,” Dane said.
Minnesota: Lawmakers are looking at a bill that takes deceased people off of the state’s voter registration system. As it currently stands, the secretary of state must create a monthly list of deceased registered voters that gets sent to each county auditor. They update the registration system and change the voter’s status to “deceased”. The new language added by HF 3722 would “remove” the deceased person from the registration system. If passed, auditors would have to have their voter registration system updated by June 1 of next year. The Secretary of State’s Office says they are not in favor of the bill and that it will make it harder to keep track of deceased voters if they are purged from the system. “We believe the way the law is currently written, and the way that the system is set up, does what the intent of the bill is: To ensure that deceased individuals are not voting in our elections. But (it) would remove the critical ability for us to maintain the historical record of those individuals,” said Paul Linnell, director of elections at the Secretary of State’s Office. The bill has been referred to the house Elections Finance and Government Operations committee.
While intimidation tactics and interference already carry the criminal weight of a gross misdemeanor and a $1,000 civil penalty, and have done so since 2023, Sen. Bonnie Westlin’s (DFL-Plymouth) bill seeks to elevate the criminal penalty to the felony level, accompanied by a civil penalty of up to $10,000. The bill, Senate File 3893, passed through the Senate Elections Committee with ease after a March 5 hearing, moving forward with a unanimous vote. The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon offered support for the bill at the hearing. “We know that over the last several years, there has been an increase in the threats to safety to election administrators as well as threats of interference,” said Nicole Freeman, a representative from the office.
Rep. Duane Quam (R-Bryon) is sponsoring HF3723 that would mandate that county auditors or city clerks submit any absentee ballot applications that weren’t submitted electronically to the Secretary of State’s Office to verify the voter’s driver’s license, state identification card or Social Security number. Office staff would need to do this 60-75 days before an election. If application information doesn’t match the government database, the voter would automatically be labeled as “challenged.” Nicole Freeman, government relations director with the Office of the Secretary of State, opposes the bill because of the overlap with current voter verification done through the Help America Vote verification system established in 2004. It shows if voters are alive or deceased and if they have multiple matches for name, date of birth, and last four digits of the Social Security number. The bill failed on a 5-5 vote along party lines in the House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee March 18.
Ohio: Two Ohio House Democrats have introduced a bill that would allow voters who are still holding a mail-in ballot on Election Day to put it in secure ballot drop boxes at their local precinct. This bill is a reaction to a new law that requires most mail-in ballots to be received by election day. Senate Bill 293 requires most ballots to arrive at boards of elections by election day to be tallied. Democrats said they fear that could disenfranchise some voters. While voters could return those ballots and vote provisionally, that ballot wouldn’t count until later. Rep. Joe Miller (D-Amherst) said his bill would expand to temporary ballot drop boxes for voters at their precincts. Miller said the temporary dropboxes could easily be installed and monitored like other voting machines. And he said they would not replace the permanent ones outside county boards of elections. Miller said it’s important that something be done to ensure voters who cast ballots by mail can get their votes in on time. According to WOUB, this bill is unlikely to garner support among Republicans, many of whom have voiced support for efforts in the past to limit the number of permanent drop boxes. SB 293, which eliminated the four day grace period for ballots and requires most to be received by election day, passed mainly along party lines. All but one Republican in each chamber voted for it and all Democrats voted against it.
Tennessee: Lawmakers have passed legislation aimed at easing the process for people with felony convictions to restore their voting rights. The measure, Senate Bill 336 / House Bill 687, now heads to the governor’s desk after clearing both chambers March 12. Under the legislation, people seeking to regain voting rights would no longer be required to pay all outstanding court costs before becoming eligible. The bill also replaces a rule requiring individuals to be fully caught up on child support with a new standard requiring 12 months of documented compliance with child support orders, including payment plans. If signed into law, individuals would be eligible to restore their voting rights after completing their sentence, paying court-ordered restitution to victims, and remaining in compliance with child support obligations for at least one year.
Arlington County, Virginia: County Board elections will continue to use ranked-choice voting through at least 2027. County Board members unanimously opted for a two-year extension of the pilot program that has been in place since 2024 — coming up short of advocates’ requests to make the switch permanent for all future general elections. “I know that’s not satisfying” to proponents of using the method permanently, Board Chair Matt de Ferranti acknowledged. However, he said limiting the extension would provide more time to conduct outreach and gather public input. State law changed in 2020 to allow Virginia jurisdictions to use ranked-choice voting to select their governing bodies. All other elections statewide must use the more traditional format, where the winner of the most votes wins even if that candidate does not reach a majority. Arlington was the first jurisdiction to take advantage of the legislation when Board members changed the Democratic County Board primary to ranked choice in 2023. Pushing further action to 2027 also will give county leaders time to consider potential changes to Arlington’s nearly century-old government form. Board members are expected to set up a task force this summer to consider governance issues and ultimately return with recommendations. Arlington’s current election equipment limits voters to ranking no more than three choices. That will expand to 10 when new equipment is placed into service, likely next year, county elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer told Board members.
Washington: A bill aimed at protecting the state’s voter registration database from being disclosed through public records requests is on Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk. State officials sought the bill after a recent request from the U.S. Department of Justice for sensitive voter information. “We have serious concerns about how federal officials want to use private and protected voter information, which the DOJ has continually refused to address,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in an email statement. Requested by Hobbs, SB 5892 would prohibit county elections offices from producing records generated by the statewide voter registration database in response to Public Records Act requests. Instead, county offices would be required to direct those requests to the Secretary of State within five days. State or local election officials who knowingly distribute private voter registration database information without authorization from the Secretary of State would face a Class C felony. Previously, state law only stated that county elections offices were “not required” to produce records in response to such PRA requests. The bill clarifies that county offices are prohibited from doing so. Under state law, a voter’s date of birth, driver’s license number and the last four digits of a Social Security number are considered private and protected information and are not included in the state’s publicly accessible voter registration database. The only information currently available to the public includes a voter’s name, address, political jurisdiction, gender, birth year, date of registration, voting record and registration number. The state maintains two voter registration databases: county voter registration databases maintained by county auditors, and a statewide voter registration database maintained by the Office of the Secretary of State.
Legal Updates
Arizona: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that tossed out a lawsuit by Arizona Republicans that accused the state of violating federal law and sought to purge up to 1.27 million voters from the rolls. In 2024, then-Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda, who is now running for the nomination of her party for Secretary of State, along with Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi and unsuccessful 2018 Republican Secretary of State candidate Steve Gaynor sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and accused the state of violating the National Voter Registration Act. The lawsuit claimed that Fontes failed to purge over a million ineligible and unaccounted for voters from the state’s registration rolls, costing the Arizona Republican Party time and resources on voter education and mobilization claims. “Although plaintiffs allege that ‘known cases of voter fraud’ have occurred in Arizona, they do not allege that any of those cases were the result of inadequate list maintenance or that they affected the plaintiffs,” the three-judge panel wrote in its ruling. “Instead, they argue that they have alleged a ‘substantial risk’ of harm because ineligible voters listed on the rolls might vote in the future.” The appeals court found that they could not establish what the “substantial risk” was, as it was “based on an ‘attenuated chain of inferences.’” At the end of the day, the judges concluded, the harm the Republicans claimed “is entirely hypothetical.” “Such ‘conjectural allegations of potential injuries’ and ‘chain(s) of hypothetical contingencies’ are insufficient to plead an actual or imminent injury,” the court said. “(T)he harm plaintiffs fear is speculative and therefore insufficient to establish an injury in fact.”
Georgia: U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee says a mediation between Fulton County and the U.S. government over the FBI’s seizure of hundreds of boxes of ballots and other records from the county’s election hub has been unsuccessful. Boulee gave the two parties a deadline to agree on a mediator and come to the table, but with the deadline approaching, officials say neither side was ceding any ground. “The Court understands that mediation has been unsuccessful. Consequently, the Court is now taking the Motion to Vacate Hearing and to Quash Subpoena under advisement,” the judge wrote on March 16. Boulee is now ordering both sides to file new briefs specifically about the federal government’s attempt to quash a subpoena requiring an FBI agent to testify at a future hearing. The judge has given the U.S. government a deadline of March 18, with Fulton County’s deadline two days later. If the judge decides to deny the federal government’s request not to have a hearing, it will proceed on March 27 at 9 a.m.
Indiana: Clay County Circuit Court Judge David Thomas has ordered three counties to hold off mailing absentee ballots in an Indiana legislative primary. At issue is a dispute over whether one of two women with the last name Wilson who filed to run against Goode in the primary should be removed from the primary ballot because of a 2010 criminal conviction. Thomas issued an order March 18 directing the county clerks in Vigo, Clay and Sullivan counties to “immediately cease sending, mailing, or otherwise distributing absentee ballots” involving the Republican Senate District 38 race. Under state law, county election offices must start mailing requested absentee ballots on Monday ahead of the May 5 primary. Thomas did not rule on arguments that candidate Alexandra Wilson should be taken off the ballot because of a state law prohibiting someone convicted of a felony crime from holding elected office. There is also still a pending motion to change judges.
Kentucky: Jefferson County Clerk David Yates filed a motion to intervene in the DOJ’s lawsuit against Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams and the Kentucky State Board of Elections. Yates said he is the first county clerk in the country to take legal action to block the transfer of unredacted voter rolls, including Social Security and driver’s license numbers, to the Justice Department. “The Constitution deliberately gives states and local governments control over elections to prevent federal overreach by any president or administration,” Yates said in a press conference Tuesday morning. “I will not stand by while President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice try to bully local officials into surrendering that authority. When the people of Louisville are attacked, we stand up and we fight back, because protecting local control is how we protect democracy.” The motion says “the DOJ’s attempt to illegally overreach is not only a state issue, but a local issue as well.” “Local officials, like the Clerk, are the primary registration records custodians and administrators of elections in Kentucky engaging in firsthand and active participation in the voting process, directly with voters, from start to finish,” the motion says. “As County Clerk, Clerk Yates ensures Jefferson County residents have voting access, including registration, and strives to get more people involved in the democratic process.” Yates’ motion to intervene was filed in partnership with the Jefferson County attorney’s office in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky (ACLU-KY) filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of two Kentucky voters who are naturalized citizens and voting rights groups. The State Board of Elections has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing federal law doesn’t give the DOJ unfettered access to data on millions of Kentuckians who are registered to vote. It also said the board had attempted to cooperate with the DOJ by providing a redacted list to avoid privacy violations. The Democratic National Committee has attempted to file an amicus brief in support of the State Board of Elections’ call to dismiss the case.
Michigan: Shawn Wilmoth of Warren will spend the next two decades in prison for operating an election-related scam in 2022. Wilmoth was sentenced to four to 20 years in prison after being found guilty by a Macomb County Jury for conducting an illegal criminal enterprise and defrauding governor/judicial candidates during the 2022 midterm election cycle. According to prosecutors, the candidates contacted businesses owned by Wilmoth to collect the signatures required to appear on the Aug. 2022 primary ballots. Wilmoth charged the campaigns early $400,000 for valid signatures and intentionally delivered tens of thousands of forged signatures, authorities say. “This defendant ran a calculated scheme that sabotaged candidates and stripped Michigan voters of choices in the 2022 election,” said Attorney General Nessel. “This conduct attacked the integrity of our electoral system, and I am proud of the work of my office and the Department of State in securing this sentence. We remain committed to fighting to hold those who commit election fraud accountable.” Wilson was found guilty of: 1 count, Conducting a Criminal Enterprise; 2 counts, False Pretenses, $100,000 or more; 2 counts, False Pretenses, $50,000 to $100,000; 3 counts, False Pretenses, $20,000 to $50,000; 7 counts, Use of a Computer to Commit a Crime, $20,000 or more; and 7 counts, Election Law Forgery. On top of his prison sentence, he was also ordered to repay the victims $376,601. The forged signatures were caught by the Michigan Bureau of Elections and referred to the Attorney General for investigation in 2022.
Texas: With 1,756 provisional ballots in limbo – ballots cast by Democratic voters in Dallas who got in line to vote after 7 p.m.on primary day, Dallas County Democrats said the party had determined the Texas Supreme Court “is no longer a viable forum for seeking a fair and independent application of the law regarding this issue.” The Texas Supreme Court has yet to rule on a lawsuit involving ballots cast after 7 p.m. at two Williamson County polling places. That ruling will determine whether 12 ballots in the Democratic primary and 4 ballots in the Republican primary should be counted, county officials said. The Texas Supreme Court issued orders instructing the counties to separate any ballots from voters who were not in line by 7 p.m. Those votes were not included in the unofficial results released so far. The temporary order by the Texas Supreme Court had left unclear whether votes cast by people who arrived after 7 p.m. in both counties would be part of the final vote count.
Utah: Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is asking a federal court to dismiss an effort by the Justice Department to obtain Utah’s entire, unredacted voter database — and it has the backing of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. In a response filed March 13, Utah argued the DOJ has no legal basis or valid reason for demanding the sensitive data, and that the state would be breaking its own privacy laws in handing it over. Most states have refused the White House’s sweeping nationwide effort to obtain private voter information. Henderson, who oversees elections in Utah, has pushed back on the DOJ’s request since she received it last July. “We’ve offered the public voter list. If they want protected data, there’s a process for government entities to request it for lawful purposes,” Henderson said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune at the time. “We’ll address that if it comes,” she continued, “but so far we haven’t identified any federal or state statute that would justify handing over to the federal government the personal identifying information of 2.1 million Utah voters.” According to the state’s response to the lawsuit, Henderson repeatedly asked the department to clarify aspects of its request, including how it would use the data and whether it “would share Utah voters’ personal information with other agencies or non-governmental entities.” “Over three months later, DOJ responded — not with answers, but with a proposed Memorandum of Understanding,” Utah’s filing says.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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